Fiction (19th Century)

Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1873. Original terra-cotta cloth decorated in blind and gilt. First Edition of Alcott's first full-fledged novel for adults, in which she portrays the difficulties and rewards of 21-year-old Christie Devon leaving home to make her own way (and WORK) in the real world. The book "describes in... More

Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1871. 4 pp preliminary undated ads. Original green cloth decorated in gilt. First American Edition, published about two weeks after the London one. This is Louisa May Alcott's sequel to her vastly-successful book for children LITTLE WOMEN (two volumes, 1868-1869), in... More

Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1871. 4 pp preliminary undated ads. Original green cloth decorated in gilt. First American Edition, published about two weeks after the London one. This is Louisa May Alcott's sequel to her vastly-successful book for children LITTLE WOMEN (two volumes, 1868-1869), in... More

Written by "Jo" and "Meg" and acted by The "Little Women". Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1893. 2 pp preliminary undated ads + 2 pp terminal undated ads. Original mustard cloth decorated in black and gilt. First Edition of this collection of six plays, written and performed by the Alcott sisters when... More

A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the Author of "Pride and Prejudice." The Second Edition. London: printed for the Author, by C. Roworth... and published by T. Egerton, 1813. Original light reddish-brown muslin cloth with printed spine labels. "Second Edition" of Jane Austen's first published work, which like the first... More

New York: Lovell, Coryell & Company, n.d.[1893] (spine of wrapper dated March 1893). Original light brown wrappers decorated in dark brown. First Edition, first state (with the East Tenth Street address on the title page, as opposed to the later 16th Street address). A TILLYLOSS SCANDAL is an unauthorized collection... More

Boston: Roberts Brothers, n.d.[1896]. [Twenty posters, each 7-3/4" x 5-5/8", plus a slightly larger title panel (probably the front panel of what was originally an envelope).] Beginning with "George Egerton's" 1893 novel KEYNOTES, for which the series would be named, John Lane of London published, over the course of five... More

An Impressionist Novel. Frontispiece by Aubrey Beadsley. London: Elkin Mathews, 1896. 20 pp ads dated 1895-96. Original dark blue cloth decorated in light blue and lettered in bronze. First Edition, which consisted of 1000 copies. This copy is of the second and usual issue, with the so-called "Portrait of the... More

By Currer Bell. In Three Volumes. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1853. 16 pp Vol I ads dated March 1854. Original blind-stamped olive-brown cloth. First Edition of Charlotte Brontë's last novel written (THE PROFESSOR was published later, posthumously, but had been her first novel written -- rejected by the publisher... More

[two volumes, original wrappers] A Novel. By the Author of "Jane Eyre" [sic]. [In Two Volumes.] New York: Harper & Brothers, 1848. Original light brown printed wrappers. First American Edition of one of the greatest novels of the Nineteenth Century. Emily Brontë's ("Ellis Bell's") WUTHERING HEIGHTS was published in England... More

["From the Author's Father"] Edited by William M. Rossetti and F. Hueffer. With a Memoir and Two Portraits. [In Two Volumes.] London: Tinsley Brothers, 1876. Original rose-brown cloth on beveled boards. First Edition -- of the second and final title by "Nolly" Brown, who died of pyæmia (blood-poisoning) at the... More

With Sixty-five Illustrations by Arthur B. Frost and Nine by Henry Holiday. London: Macmillan and Co., 1883. 1 page undated ads. Original light green cloth pictorially decorated in gilt. First Edition of Lewis Carroll's first major collection of verse (though some of the material had appeared earlier, in PHANTASMAGORIA and... More

[with 1893 dust jacket] With Forty-six Illustrations by Harry Furniss. London: Macmillan and Co., 1893. 5 pp undated ads. Original red cloth pictorially decorated in gilt, all edges gilt, with dust jacket. First Edition of Carroll's conclusion to his 1889 novel/fairy tale, written with an even more serious tone than... More

Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1894. 2 pp undated ads. Original olive green cloth decorated in gilt. First Edition of Kate Chopin's second book, a collection of 23 stories and anecdotes of Louisiana local color. An outstanding example:~"Desirée's Baby" tells of a Louisiana aristocrat who marries an... More

or, Vladimir the Monk. New York: Robert Bonner's Sons, 1888. Original buff wrappers. First Edition in book form, published in the year following the death of this prodigious New England writer (born in Maine). This tale had first appeared in the New York Ledger in 1856, the year in which... More

Translated from the Italian by M[ary]. A[lice]. Murray. Illustrated by C.[sic] Mazzanti. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892. Original cream cloth decorated in blue, with endpapers and page edges to match. First Edition in English, issued as a volume in Unwin's "The Children's Library." Lorenzini (1826-1890 -- he used his mother's... More

[Edward Garnett's copy] A Story of an Eastern River. Second Edition. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. Original dark green cloth. First Edition, early but not first printing, of Conrad's first book. The first printing came out in 1895 (bearing that date on the title page) -- some domestic copies and... More

A Story of an Eastern River. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1895. 3 pp undated ads. Original black cloth. First American Edition of Conrad's first book, with a text that varies considerably from the English edition (because it was typeset from uncorrected proofs). We find the American edition to be... More

A Story of an Eastern River. Second Edition. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. Original dark green cloth. First Edition, early printing -- of Conrad's first book. Though labeled "Second Edition" on the title page, this is actually a reprint of the first edition; all copies of this printing seem to... More

A Tale of the Forecastle. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1898. Original pictorial light blue-grey mottled cloth. First Edition, second issue -- with the date 1898 (rather than 1897) on the front of the title leaf. (Note: ALL copies without a date on the front of the title leaf... More

A Tale of the Forecastle. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1897. Original pictorial light blue-grey mottled cloth. First Edition, first issue, of the tale subsequently published as THE NIGGER OF THE "NARCISSUS." Conrad wrote this story with the "Nigger" title, but consented to change the title for the American... More

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1896. 10 pp undated ads. Original green cloth decorated in red and black. First American Edition of Conrad's second book, issued as #198 in Appleton's "Town and Country Library." Books in the "Town and Country Library" were issued in three formats: this standard one... More

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. 1 page preliminary undated ads. Original dark green cloth. First Edition of Conrad's second book, preceded only by (and containing many of the same characters as) ALMAYER'S FOLLY. After Edward Garnett (then a reader at Unwin's) had "discovered" Conrad and helped him get his first... More